"I fear that we are trying to achieve the unachievable in Afghanistan."

"Former U.S. intelligence officials expressed skepticism at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. Af-Pak policy today, POLITICO's Meredith Shiner reports:

Former CIA Islamabad station chief Robert Grenier expressed his fears Wednesday that American efforts in Afghanistan may be futile. 

In his opening statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Grenier said policymakers are overlooking a more central debate over purpose by focusing on questions of troop numbers. 

"The more fundamental question is do we have an achievable objective and do we have an effective strategy to reach that objective. Right now, I believe the answer to both those questions is no.  "I fear that we are trying to achieve the unachievable in Afghanistan." 

Pressed later in his testimony—given on the eighth anniversary of combat in the region—Grenier said building up an Afghani army is a "virtually unsustainable" effort, which would cost multiples in Afghan GDP. 

Grenier was not alone in his skepticism of native Afghani involvement in the war against terror. Marc Sageman, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, later added, "Afghans are for rent. You can't buy them." 

Though the hearing's focus fell primarily on Afghanistan and the U.S. strategic shortcomings in the region, the larger issue of how to continue to fight against al-Qaeda and current status of the terrorist organization framed the debate. 

Peter Bergen, senior research fellow and co-director of the New America Foundation's Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative, said there is no imminent chance of a 9/11 World Trade Center-type attack from al-Qaeda and that any strike the group would be capable of on American soil would be of a much lesser magnitude."